“Mind-opening.” “There is a synergy here.” “Richness and possibilities….”

We had the first of three pre-launch lunches today for one of Axiom’s next-generation projects, The Peterborough Dialogues.

The “new thing” we’ve been working on over the last few months is taking form, landing, being born. The dream is that it will bring together everything Axiom has learned about the narrative arts and the process arts, in a richly participatory process of media-making, community-building, learning and change.

We’re working on it on multiple scales — but this one is closest to home because it’s about home.

The “calling questions,” circulated to a diverse group of community innovators and leaders (grassroots and organizational), were: “What if we could awaken the deepest gifts and possibilities in our community?” “How do we create a local living oasis in a global storm of shifting sands?”

The questions are resonating. An amazingly creative group of people said “yes” to lunch, sparked by both curiosity and hope. Two days after we launched social media for the project, it’s been shared and retweeted to thousands.

Today’s small-group circle of invited guests and “hosting team” ranged from under 20 to over 80 in age, with interests ranging from local food, to more visionary and participatory local planning, to learning about process that works, to radical inclusion of marginalized groups.

We’re just getting started, and we’re already listening to people with deep commitment and experience connect with each other in new ways.

Tomorrow’s guests are at the centre of community innovation in health, anti-poverty work, cohousing, and more.

Can we change the parameters of community discussion? Listen to each other’s stories? Have the conversations that need to happen for the community to come alive?

One participant today who’s put many years into community work talked about the coming dialogues as an opportunity for convergence of energy and effort.

Another (okay, it was me) said what’s starting now reminds him of a time 25 years ago, when a series of local visioning forums on the theme of how we as a community would respond to the challenge of sustainable development, crossed all traditional political and sectoral lines and led to collaborative projects that are still having an impact.

Can’t wait for tomorrow.

For more information, join the mailing list at peterboroughdialogues.ca. You can follow this project on Twitter at @ptbodialogues.